Hello again. Making progress on this old brick. Latest problem:
Doors lock with the central lock off the driver's door, but when you use the key to unlock, only the driver's door unlocks. This is somewhat frustrating as the trunk along with all doors remains locked and have to be manually unlocked. I have Bentley's and I think I can pull the door apart, but everyone on the Brickboard is very helpful, I figured I'd check with the experts first.

I failed. My problem if you read the post: Doors unlock with key or knob actuation at driver's door. However, no doors, including trunk unlock from driver's door. Took the door apart, connector for lock/unlock disengaged and put 12v to the connector black:ground, red/green:lock/unlock. All that happened was with the battery disconnected, I could hear a relay clicking with power to red. Nothing with power on green. I reconnected the battery and retested; power to red or green with black ground:Nothing. I can't get to the relays because I guess they are behind the vent and I hesitate to disassemble more than just the front console panel, glove of kick plates.

Took me an hour just to put it all back together. Too bad

Hmmmmmm.



We learn together. I learn what I know that I don't know I knew.

Relays. They have plus voltage all the time, as long as the battery is connected. TO make one close, it needs the ground side to be connected.

In that harness, SB, GN, R. The SB wire is the ground side of the relay. The red and the green wire get grounded by the knob or the key switch.

So - if the SB wire touches the GN wire, the unlocking relay should close.

If the SB wire touches the R wire, the locking relay should close.

See if you can find that harness in there above the fuse panel. Use a couple of dress making pins. Stick one in each wire, right through the insulation. Touch the pins - listen for the clicks.

Test done.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

PS remember to remove the pins - could have wierd things happen otherwise!

I think your green wire is broken at the door hinge inside the rubber accordion. Like B.C. said. The relays never go bad...

It is a royal pain to repair as there is not enough slack to pull the busted part of the harness back into the door panel. But there is a three-pin connector (red-green-black) under about where the headlight switch is that is the other end of this line. If you disconnect it, you might be able to wiggle the wire out far enough to splice it in the door panel and then shove it back in, but it might be entangled it the loom where all the fuse panel connections are made. If so, then you have to remove the fuse panel and a bit of tarpaper where the door hinge bolts are to get at the harness proper. And when you fix the green wire only, then the speaker wire and red/black wires will be next.

If it worked from the knob to unlock, then it would be the key switch, some of which were built with disintegrating harnesses not limited to the 82-88 years.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

when I get hit with one of these old-aged Volvo problems, the first thing I think about is what's gone kaput due to age?

The central locking relays are on the relay bar under the center dash air vents, there's apair of them. They look the same as the nearby power windows relay. They have no circuit board in them, so no re-soldering. However, they can overheat - and that may mess up one of the contacts. No experience of this on any of my 240s.....yet.

The wires going into the driver's door get flexed a lot in 14 years. IMHO that's a possible place to look. But first, a listing of symptoms again, please.

1. Using key....a. Which doors unlock OK?....b. Which doors lock OK?

2. Using door knob....a. Which doors unlock OK?....b. Which doors lock OK?

3. If other than all doors, then which ones?

Here's what I understand you have:

1.a is LF door only. 1.b is not stated

2.a is not stated, 2.b is all doors.


In the driver's door the key has a switch, and the up/down rod on the knob has a switch. Either switch can fail, due to dried up lubricant, moisture-assisted oxidation, sma;ll creatures living in the door, who knows?

If the action of those switches can be simulated, you can prove whether or not the relays are bad, or one or both door switches. If it's the switches, don't waste time working with the relays, and vice-versa, if it's the relays, don't waste time pulling the door trim panel.

Find the connector that's between the door and the rest of the circuit. It may be inside the rubber housing that's between the door and the "A" pillar between the door hinges, or maybe inside the kick panel surrounding the fuse panel. If you can't access that connector, yo may have to pull the trim panel anyway. Not a big deal. Have some heavy plastic sheeting to make a new water shield, the old ones usually crap out.

Three wire connector, black, green, red. Black = ground. Green = locking when hot. Red = unlocking when hot. Use a long jumper wire to apply 12volts to the red wire, you should get unlocking. Apply 12 volts to the green wire, you whould get locking.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)


PS The wiring info is from a Volvo Wiring Diagrams book for the 1987-1988 240s. I would expect that your model is the same, but no guarantees. OK?

Bob, I just printed out your instructions. Thank you very much. I think I will put the dash and glove back together again, cause getting to those relays will be beyond me. I took the door apart on my 82 about 10 years ago, so I guess I can do it again on my 90. I will try to operate the switches as you have suggested to simulate the operation of key/knob. BTW, all doors lock, however none of the doors unlock from the drivers key or knob which is kind of dangerous.

Oleseahorse

that it's a wire not connected, maybe broken.

Again - this is info from my 1988 Volvo Wiring Diagrams book, the 1990 is likely the same, but check and be careful.

The unlocking relay is not being energized. To energize, it needs to have the green wire in that harness to be grounded. The knob switch and the key switch both ground that wire, but the wire is broken somewhere before it gets to the relay.

IMO the most likely place for the wire to break is where it is flexed with the opening and closing of the driver's door.

If I was searching for that connector, I would look first amongst the wires found above the driver's knee pad and along the edge near the fender. At some point the harness will go down behind the kick panel that surrounds the fuse panel and then go into that rubber flextube into the door.

Where along that route the connector is located is not something I know - but I would consider where it would be so that car assembly would be easiest. The diagram shows the connector not inside the door, and not inside the car, either.

If this test reveals the problem, the fix should be pretty easy.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

OK. The saga continues. Removed the glove box. Only the OD relay can be observed to the left. Removed the panel retaining screws and tilted the panel forward. I also removed a few of the rocker switches to get a better peek inside. Do I have to take the panel off cause there's just a monstrous birds nest of wires back there. Remember I'm looking for the door lock and unlock relays. Maybe it's someplace a whole lot easier to access. Help!

Here's what I decided to do, at least for now since I've been poring over the Bentley's book. It appears that there is both a lock and unlock relay for the central locking system. Since all the doors, including the trunk, refuse to unlock, I'm assuming it's the unlock relay. Since the system has got to be basically the same for lock and unlock, I'm going to switch relays and see what happens. I believe the relays are behind the rocker switches on the front panel..........Off to the garage. I'll let you know how I make out.

That happened to me the other day for abou 5 minutes.
my doors wouldn't lock, but they'd unlock. I just manually locked them all, left and when i came back, it worked fine.
It's worked fine ever since...........
One of those weird volvo mystery's that means somethings gonna break soon i guess.
Let us know how it goes!

Yes I had a similar problem with the unlock/lock mechanism. The stupid little nob on the inside had a problems when it would come up all the way when it was unlock. I had to take the whole door apart and it was a pain in the neck let me tell you!
--
92 240 2.3 L 98,000 Miles...Almost 100,000

On the contrary, I think the 240 doors are just about the easiest doors to get into on any car, and that includes my old VW beetles.
You need a large phillips screwdriver, a large flat screwdriver, and a tiny screwdriver or pointy thing, like an awl.
Remove the square inner door release frame, just snaps out. Unscrew the lock knob. Turn and remove the 3 plastic lock pins at the bottom of the map pocket- quarter turn and they release.
Pull the map pocket up at each end to release from the plastic pin, then swing it up into the car at 90° to get the center to unplug from the panel.
Pry out the two (or 3 on power-window cars) plugs in the door handle with the tiny screwdriver. Under each plug is a large phillips screw- remove. Pull the handle away from the panel a bit, and unplug all the window switches if equipped. Push the wires back into the door, and rotate the door handle 90° clockwise so it's straight up. Unplug from the top socket in the door.
For manual window cars, pry off the cover on the window crank, and remove the 1 phillips screw. Remove the crank and the ring behind it.
Work around the door panel with the large screwdriver, starting at the bottom. Pop out each panel rivet as you come to it, prying near the rivet. They pop straight out. When the door panel's fully loose, pull it up at the back till it's clear of the door, then slide it off the door. Wait! There are two small speaker wires to unplug, so reach behind and get them. Now you can put the panel to the side and do what you need to in the door.
Good luck with it!
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 225K, 88 744GLE- 209K, 91 244 183K. Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 229K, 88 244GL, 146K, 87 244DL, 235K, 88 245DL, 236K

i have the same issue on my 82 244 DL jetronic. The driver side unlocks...both at the same time...but the passenger side remains unlocked?


Any suggestions...as to the culprit?